


Something Still Unclear

by rosyserenity



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Familial Relationships, Gen, Growing Up, One Shot, Pre-Canon, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:01:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24444013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosyserenity/pseuds/rosyserenity
Summary: A 17-year-old Hartley has a conversation with his kid sister and hears something rarely spoken by their parents.
Relationships: Hartley Rathaway & Jerrie Rathaway
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Something Still Unclear

**Author's Note:**

> First fic on here! <3 I wanted to write something about Hartley and my interpretation of Jerrie (his sister from the comics if you're unfamiliar with her, and there will be plenty more of her to come in the future) as she would be in the DCTV verse's relationship dynamic. The title comes from Suddenly from the Les Mis movie 'cause I'm a sap like that. Enjoy!

“You hate me,” the five-year-old accused. Her tone was flat, devoid of the usual petulance you would find in such a little girl. Somehow, that was worse. 

Hartley sighed. “I don’t hate you – I…” Hartley paused, taking a moment to think his words over carefully. He had resented the new baby in the house when she was born, but he was almost a man now and he’d been trying to remember that this wasn’t a peer; this wasn’t some prep school golden boy or young so-called prodigy at his dad’s firm. This was a child – a wide-eyed, three-foot-tall imp with pudgy cheeks and a smocked dress who was often mistaken for a toddler, who’d just barely begun to read (though her progress for her age astonished Hartley, even made a part of him proud), who put him on a pedestal the same way he often did when someone older and wiser came into his life, someone who listened (however begrudgingly), someone who wasn’t constantly pressuring him to be someone he, at his core, was not. 

“I’m a very busy person – I don’t have time to play or watch over you whenever you want me to and I prefer to be alone those few moments I actually have free-time, so I can’t say I’m always very thrilled to have you wandering into my room and pestering me.” 

“So you want me to go away and leave you alone -- forever?”

He fought the urge to roll his eyes, but it prevailed. “Not forever. I just need some time to get used to you. After all, you’ve only been walking and talking for what, a month?” 

Jerrie laughed. “Two-and-a-half years!” 

“Two-and-a-half years,” Hartley repeated, a smirk on his face. “Right. Sorry, I forgot – like I said, very busy person and what with how tiny and round you are…” 

She began to glow like he just hung the moon and crowned her princess of it. It was pathetic, really, but it was hard not to smile whenever she smiled. She turned around, off to get back to her little fairy world where she'd stay for hours, but she stopped and looked back. 

“Hartley?” 

“What is it now?” 

“I love you.” 

“I…love you, too.”


End file.
